JASON ROBARDS, acting giant of the American stage but hell this will just be films and TV

Great in Long Day's Journey and Melvin and Howard and I'm sure many films I haven't seen--I've always intended to watch A Thousand Clowns--but I'll cast the obvious ATPM vote. That moment when he taps the desk while walking away from Woodward and Bernstein is brilliant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg4_lfm5VrQ

He's remarkably charming in A Thousand Clowns, a teenaged fave of mine, as a Kennedy-era slacker. A big Broadway hit and Oscar-nominated for Best Picture, even though he's kind of miscast. Rewatched the other night, and while the sentimental seams show, it still has something.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V67fzMQOfP0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VXyDhB2VrE

i got to meet jason robards one time when i was little. it was on the film set of johnny bull, which was shooting near knoxville. he played a coal miner. in the scene i saw he was covered in coal dust and getting a sponge bath. he was kind of gruff and distracted but nice. colleen dewhurst was his co-star and she was just incredible to me. in my memory she glowed. also showed me where the catering table was.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091298/

Once upon a time is one of the best movies ever made and he's the best thing about it

I saw him and Dewhurst in Long Day's Journey on Broadway, 1988. She seemed like a real Earth Mother on and off stage (well, when she wasn't playing an opium addict). xp

yes, "Mr Choo Choo..."

Super in Long Day's Journey and that late '70s post-Oscar spree (the Julia win is unearned though...). For my generation he defined Old Coot.

and agree he's weirdly charming in A Thousand Clowns when "charm" is not what I expect from him. I expect this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWVOH1lxY34

Married to Lauren Bacall 1961-69, who he occasionally called "the Widow Bogart." Didn't get sober til the early '70s.

He shone pointlessly in Dream A Little Dream along with Piper Laurie and Harry Dean Stanton

One of the most unusual Nixons--not named as such--in Washington Behind Closed Doors.

My dad always referred to him as Jason Robards Jr., for indeed that's how he was always billed into the early '60s, as his father had been a popular character actor in film and theatre.

It makes the Long Day's Journey parallels all the more delicious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpLLr6cUs34

No Max Dugan, no peace

yeah that was a late cut. sorry, didn't Neil Simon write it? gtfo

he did yeah

an awful Reagan-era fairytale but it warmed my heart at 13 yrs old

I understand.

I first saw Robards when I was 10 or 11 in the TV play House Without a Christmas Tree, in which he plays an embittered rural widower and father as a huge wall of sadness. Indelible.

Bacall had a type, didn't she? He looked and even sounded a bit like Bogart.

LDJIN

Among the many reasons why Parenthood is the only better-than-good thing Ron Howard touched.

True story: my brother Steve befriended Sam Robards (son of Jason Robards and Lauren Bacall) in elementary school, knowing nothing of his famous parents. One day Sam invited Steve over after school. "Sam, I want to meet your new friend" called Bacall from another room. They dutifully walked into that room, where she was lying in a bubble bath and extended a wet hand in greeting.

did afterward she brew him a rich cup of grounds-heavy Maxwell House?

Married to Lauren Bacall 1961-69, who he occasionally called "the Widow Bogart."

oof

OK I've spent the last 10 minutes watching every Bacall coffee commercial – her best acting ever.

You Can't Take It With You (TV) sadly omitted. I'm torn between how much I love ATPM and how little I've seen of the rest of his work, including the O'Neills.

YCTIWY was a televised Broadway production he was in... I don't like to count those. Apparently the Lumet Iceman can be bought tho.

I like to imagine Jason and Betty having that coffee after throwing all the crockery at each other the night before. (Her '80s coffee-in-the-limo spot is the best.)

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who is the Mr Sycamore voter?